Search This Blog

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Ok, so here's an intro.
I recently just started my new business, www.marzea.com (selling shawls and hair growth oil. yaaasss!), and due to budget constraint, i could not hire a website developer and instead tried making my own.

Hence, ze title!

Now, first things first,
I AM NOT A TECHY! I repeat, not a techy, not good at all this coding whatever so don't come commenting and telling me i should get on Wordpress. I slap yo face. Haha =p

Secondly,
Website builders are not free. Sure, some may offer free trial for you to try and see whether the program suits your taste and ability.

Thirdly,
Because i am not some techy person with unlimited money, i had tried them and here, i am going to share my views on them. Whether you agree or not, that's up to you. You can further your research k! =)

So maybe some of you are like "What is a website builder?". It's basically a self-service website where we can create our own website, using the tools in their program, and voila! No need to use coding whatshiznot.

For Wix, i find that it's quite easy to navigate, understand and create a website. They have nice themes too! Cost wise, i think it's ok la. Not that expensive.

Price wise:

Pricing for WIX

These are some of the themes for the online stores. Their themes are mostly clean, sophisticated and simple.

Good thing about Wix is, for a noob, memang senang nak catch up how to use the editor. All we need to do is drag and drop whatever elements we want on the website. It's also mobile friendly, which means we can also edit the website for phone's POV. Cool kan?

This is how the editing page looks like. On the left sidebar is all the elements we can add/move on the web, and the right sidebar is all the details to edit the elements. Pretty straight forward.

So as you can see from the price, they're in USD, so kena times 4.43. We can use the website for free but of course there will be wix ads everywhere and limited things we can use. Also, the website url is kinda ugly (if you're not getting a domain la). It's like marzea.wixsite.com/marzea
To me, it's menyusahkan la kalau nak orang shop at your page, but the url is not easy to remember.

The ecommerce plan was what i was going for, but KIV dulu. Cuba website builder lain.

It has a somewhat same concept as Wix, but it's a bit different in the way we get to edit our website. You can see my trial one here: marzea.weebly.com (at least the url is not as ugly at wix's! Hehe!). It's a bit more complicated when trying to sort the pages, coz, obviously we'll be having pages kan. Like a page for shawls, a page for clothes, etc. There's no drop-down categories too.

Price wise:

There's more scrolling down on the page though. You can check them out here (and find the plans page).

So for businesses, it's $25 a month if you're signing up for a year. You can opt for monthly plans, but it'll be $35 kalau tak salah.

Just like Wix, their themes are clean, simple and cool.

This is how the editing page looks like. It is full of elements on the left sidebar, but it's a bit confusing to use.

BUT!! What turned me off immediately about Weebly, is the payment when customer checkout.

They give 14days free trial. But my problem with it is that it's not as user-friendly as both Wix and Weebly. It's not as responsive either. Most of the time i had no idea what i was doing and why whatever i was doing did not appear. Haha! For noobies like me, i think this'll require loads of patience.

Price wise:

Quite pricey like Weebly if opting for the basic business plan.

See, this is the editing page and there isn't like a proper navigation. No drag and drop kinda thing here. It has "Demo" (which doesn't explain much though).

Because i have no patience and it's too pricey for me, i tried the next one.

It's quite easy and straight forward to edit the website. Perhaps diorang dah pro sangat pasal online businesses, they just know what we need, so there isn't much editing needed.

I think because Shopify is specifically for businesses, so they have all the tools we need, like demographics of customers, their behaviours, and also reports on which campaign works and stuff. It's very focused. If it wasn't so expensive, this would be my choice!

This part here where i just stopped and stared. They can automate Facebook selling instead of us penat penat buat sendiri.
I think the Business plan is suitable for those yang betul betul nak blast brand and have high budget.
The beginner may not have the facebook blast thing, but it works on facebook too.

Theme and templates are pretty basic. Not as sophisticated as SQUARESPACE fo sho. And not editable like Wix, Weebly, Squarespace and Shopify. They don't have multiple pages for products, and instead it's a drop-down category (which is not entirely editable too).

You can even click on individual pictures oh the "Photos", and just type "pm" and you'll get an automated response.

Cool innit?

In case you're wondering, i took the Beginner's Plan (coz i don't really need the Facebook full blast actions, yet). And then i topped up RM 60 for the domain.

In terms of administrative stuff, it's pretty basic and ok la. Nothing much, so not much to complain too. Although, i do wish we could personalise the messages to send to customers when payment is pending ke, processing, and shipped. Avana doesn't provide that. Actually i think all of them don't have this...? Tak tau la sebab tak cuba lak!

Overall, Wix & Weebly have clearer editing tools for the website, Squarespace is good for people who goes for aesthetic value, Shopify is complete business website but too expensive for me, and Avana has facebook in its pockets.

ANYWAYS, i would've opted for Shopify for the complete business overview and simplicity in editing the website, but it cost too much.. Wix was a second go, but when convert to RM, it's more expensive than Avana.

And i saw some reviews online that Wix doesn't completely get rid of their ads even when people have upgraded their plan.

You guys can check out this blog for more intensive review on the website builders k!

And of course, if you have a big budget, you can always hire a website developer!

i've tried wix before chosing shopify, wix is bad for ecommerce, their shopping cart isn't optimized, they use drag and drop and it's tough, Now my store is powered by shopify, easy set up, free trial, hundreds of wonderful apps, optimized for SEO, fas loading, shopify is the most completed for online selling check it out here => http://1.shopifytrack.com/aff_c?offer_id=2&aff_id=20387

While designing a website, you must know the success factors for professional web design and development. Major factors that determine the success and failure of website include: website interface, website design and layout, content placement, visual enhancement and marketing of website.moodle developers for hire

Today, as the life turns out to be excessively occupied for the general population and today in the time of cash in which individuals just think and consider focuses in term of cash in such time individuals frequently neglect to comprehend the explanation behind their issues.visit the site

I think it is the fine dealings to convert all into the digitized and Singapore is looking for the satisfying highly developed but these Australian writings bolster is the best choice for everyone. Singapore is the huge country and people taking into account to arrive in this country. It is the suitable article and engaging too.To know about resume tips 2018

This is awesome. Which one is the best website builder. All of them are really very good for building website. I think wix and weebly will better. Here are some useful site where you will find some more.

Thank you for sharing like this information. This is the most easy way of learning website building. This is very good information to build a beautiful website. This helps me to get some idea regarding this and helps me to bring a creative thought. This information should here helpful for every web builder. keep sharing like this. Great job just keep it up

the author

in case you're wondering, no, there's nothing peliks about this blog. maybe a bit about the blogger, but that's for you to decide. and no, you don't have to tell me what you've decided. unless, you've decided to stay on and read on and on and on. then, well, thanks! oh, the name's Maria. Malaysian, young (at heart) and awesome by nature. bahahaa!